An online network of church communication professionals designed to be a resource for sharing ideas, tips, strategies, links and more ...

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Thinking Things Through

A while back I was driving along and pulled up behind a minivan. The back window advertised one of our local auto dealers, but what caught my eye was the web address: www.oneillauto.com. Of course, the business name is O'Neill Auto, but what I saw was "one ill auto." That was probably not the impression they were looking to leave.

Too often marketing managers move forward on a marketing objective or strategy without fully thinking things through. Never run with your gut reaction without giving it careful consideration. Think through the uses of the message; think through any alternate meanings; think through ways that your message could be cluttered by lack of clarity; think through any ways that your message, tagline, logo or image used could be turned against you.

It's hard to reel the beast back in once you've let it out of the cage. Pre-planning will save the day.